Monday, October 19, 2009

The FirsTier Events Center Viaero Events Center in Kearney, NE will be the scene Tuesday night when the Lincoln Stars drop in to battle the hometown Tri-City Storm. This will be the first time the Storm and Stars have met in the 2009-’10 regular season. The Stars are coming off an emotional OT win against the Youngstown Phantoms this past Friday night, which saw both teams combine for 13 goals. Similarly, the Storm are coming off a heartbreaking OT loss to the Fargo Force at home, in which both teams combined for 11 goals. The Stars currently hold a 3-2 record (6 points), while the Storm have a 2-1-1 record (5 points). The Stars are 1-2 on the road this season, while the Storm are 2-0-1 at home. Faceoff for the game on Tuesday night is 7:05pm.

Last season, the Storm were by far the worst team in the USHL. First year coach Tom Rudrud began the season with the cupboard bare of talent, and little to no support from upper management. Enter Kirk Brooks, the millionaire businessman from Las Vegas, NV. Brooks bought the Storm from banking investor Joel Weins (who had owned the organization since 2006), and immediately dumped a ton of money into building the franchise back up from the depths it had sunk to. The entire coaching staff was fired, and a new group was brought in led by head coach Drew Schoneck. From a Storm fans perspective, Brooks is the messiah. He has given the hockey fans in that area something it hasn’t had in awhile….hope. It isn’t going to happen overnight, but it appears early on that Brooks is doing everything right to improve the Storm’s place in the USHL. How long Brooks will stay in Kearney to right the ship, is unknown. His son, Kenny Brooks, is a forward on the team…so one has to wonder if the elder Brooks will sell the team and split when his son has moved on. In the meantime, Storm fans are very excited about this new regime, and they should be. The Storm have played much improved this season, although it is early. There is a question mark in terms of goaltending and team defense, but the Storm seem to have a good core of offensive talent. Forwards like Anthony DeCenzo, Radoslav Illo, Josh Berge, and Jaden Schwartz will be tasked with shouldering the weight of generating offense this season. Illo is a guy who always seems to play his best again the Stars, so Lincoln will really need to put a body on him every time he’s on the ice.

For the Stars, the news coming out this week was the addition of defensemen Steven Hoshaw. Hoshaw was traded from the Waterloo Blackhawks to Lincoln for a 2010 entry draft pick. Defenseman James McNulty was released by the Stars to make room for Hoshaw, who was in attendance this past Friday night at the Ice Box. As I’ve stated before, I saw Hoshaw walking around with the other Lincoln scratches Friday night, and this guy is solid. 6’1”, 215 pounds…and he looks larger than that. Hoshaw has shown that he is not afraid to drop the mitts and crack skulls. On the goaltending side of things, I’ve heard some rumors that Steven Racine is nursing a groin injury, which would explain why he hasn’t played in the regular season so far. Unless he’s 100%, I suppose we’ll see Jared Coreau again Tuesday night. Coreau is coming off his worst performance of the season (even though it was a win), so if he does start…I’d expect him to rebound and play well against the Storm.

I really wish I could make it to this game, but work gets in the way. I would really appreciate it someone could report back here with a game recap. It would be much appreciated.

Beginning with the game against the Storm on Tuesday, the Stars will play four games in six days. Tuesday night against the Storm in Kearney, Friday night at the Ice Box against the Chicago Steel, Saturday night at Des Moines, and Sunday afternoon at Cedar Rapids. That’s a very busy week for the Stars. If they can come out of that four game stretch with at least 5 points earned, I’d be happy.

Note: Stars defenseman Will Rayner was placed on the 45 day injured reserve list today, according to Pointstreak. Not good news at all. Rayner was a guy who I thought had played very well so far this season. Luckily, the Stars seem to have good depth at defense right now. Rayner joins Stars forward Brent Tate on the injured reserve list. Tate is recovering from a knee injury suffered at the Fall Classic.

4 comments:

tzweeb
said...

mr yeti, i believe we will be watching the game on B2, that is if they have a good link and enough band width..LOl a common response from B2 if they cant get you connected. ... last year i have some comments as to what the B2 feeds were like from the different arenas.. sioux city.. multi cameras, top and behind nets low color.waterloo... dang cowbells, 2 camera viewssioux falls... small rink 3 good cameras and above nets.fargo... multiple cameras, above nets, good zoom action.green bay... high main camera, multiple cameras behind nets and again Cow bells.chicago... 1 camera small rinkcedar rapids... 1 camera, bad quality, Cow Bells and poor connections.omaha/mac... multiple cameras, top of goals, great color and replays. sorry nothing yet on the civic, but being there last game i can say be ready for stupid horns all the time!!not sure why i dont have des moines or indiana.

i have my 57" t.v hooked up to my computer so we can watch the games and realy feel like we are there. dont like the time delay between live "radio" and the internet as sometimes we dont get to hear brent on the B2 link, and even the listen link is ahead of the watch link. with the games on 1480 now im not happy playing second fiddle to the baseball games. seems like what we had last year was great as we could hear brent even at the omaha games!! 1480 is not a good partner for us stars fans.static at my home on am radio makes us have to listen online as it has a much better sound.

one thing i would like B2 to allow us to do..if we pay to watch the game live, then how about letting us copy it so we can watch it later as well?? makes for a better experience when you can go back and get a replay or relive the fights!!!

i will try to post what i can here to let you know my thoughts on how the team is playing and on any excitment that you are missing out on.

from what i can tell about the blue line page, there are not alot of people that have figured out where to go to comment during a game.brent used to post a link as to "comment here" during the game for us followers to keep in touch with each other.maybe you can do that tuesday so we can all get onboard here and who knows... maybe you can have the site that gets over a hundred hits during a game!!!!